Off Topic - Gas Prices

Its been 4.16 a gallon her for awhile now

Apparently demand is down and so is the price per barrel, so "they" are anticipating a bit of a drop very soon. Grey, what a hassle about the ex and the kids; it's a shame that that has to drive your actions but I know it does. Now that you're married, though, I'd think a judge would put an end to the silliness about your not being around the ex, especially if it's making logistics difficult. But every judge is different, as I have reason to know!

I think you're right about demand.... Gas here was $4.29 yesterday and today it was $4.09. Glad I didn't fill up yesterday! ....Did some highway driving today; lots of people in the slow lane doing the speed limit.
Didn't see 1 lead-foot today.

its my husband's ex.. so unless i file charges against her next time she threatens me the only thing the judge said he could do with the new laws in Missouri for child custody is advise me to stay away from her unless my DH was with me even then i now stay in the car & refuse to go drop off or pick up the kids unless he is with me. With the new house we can't afford to attempt to change the visitation at this point so that I do not have to be held in contempt for not dropping them off to her on time & waiting till my DH goes on lunch break from work. Otherwise she's tolerable to deal with most weekends...

Seriously thinking of fixing up my old motorcycle... its a 1979 honda... so i can run errands with it.. & pay my mom to babysit during that hour or two... be a whole lot cheaper than gas even with babysitting money in there!

I feel bad for the ones that live in Cali & other places where its over $4 a gal. Idk how they do it.

Tough on you and very tough on the kids, greykyttyn. What are the new laws in Missouri?

I keep waiting for gas to come down. My car gets excellent mileage but still...

You must agree to 50/50 split on custody with one parent being primary for residential, educational & health & the other parent receiving visitation set by judge & paying child support of at least $75 per child. Only way to change visitation or custody now is to be able to prove without a doubt abandonment of more than 6 months, neglect or abuse. Before you could fight for Full custody or different types of visitation right off the bat. Now you have to go back & do that.

We have a Chevy Traverse... excellent gas mileage for a CSR/SUV but... it still has a 20 gal tank AND only gets 18 mpg. Only car other than a Jeep Commander that would hold us all & give us room to expand the family or carry someone with us when we went places.

I wonder why they made that change to custody rules. Do they hold even if your child protection services have to be called in because of drugs or neglect? That's a huge issue here.

I have a Volvo wagon; it doesn't hold more than five people but it gets 28 mpg most of the time. It would be nice to have a larger vehicle for when we're going someplace with DS and his growing family, but it's not worth changing for the few times we need it. Sounds like you need it all the time, though!

Drugs are criminal and in Missouri a conviction on any drug/drug-related charge in the home/on the property or any time the child is present (such as while driving them in a car) is prima facie evidence that can be used to terminate parental rights. The big remedy for this is rehabilitation and most judges generally go along with it no matter how many times a parent goes, so long as there isn't a pattern of non-completion.

Neglect is much harder to prove, since a lot is subjective... How much food in the refrigerator is "enough?" What constitutes "juice?" Does it depend on income levels? What happens if the parent loses his or her job, hasn't found another yet, and is waiting for unemployment to start? Is it OK to wear the same outer clothing two days in a row if it is clean and servicable? What if the child sneaks out of the house at 3 a.m. when the parent is asleep and is picked up by police? How old does a child have to be to be left home alone? For how long? In most places, it's either 10 or 12, but is it reasonable to leave a 10 year old alone for a week? Additionally, children gain the necessary maturity and skills at different ages, so not all children are ready at 10 or 12 to be home without a parent. What happens if the two parents live in places with different age requirements? What happens if one parent is military and sent someplace else? What about corporate personnel relocations? Under Missouri law, a parent can lose rights if s/he leaves the state, even if this is involuntary. In Missouri, an incarcerated parent can petition to require his/her child(ren) visit him/her at the penitentury. Parents, whose rights were terminated upon incarceration, can petition for return of those rights upon release. What happens when custody arrangements for different children in the same family, but having different fathers, conflict?

Although common sense should prevail, the legalities of parental rights and responsibilities can become rediculously convoluted. Even more so when orders of protection, trickery, lying, perjury, and vindicitveness occur.

GrayThumb, my daughter is a supervisor in our state child protection division, and she deals with these issues all of the time. I have also worked extensively in schools, and staff are mandated to report anything that seems like abuse and/or neglect - although my daughter finds that they sometimes let truly egregious situations go unchecked despite the school's legal responsibility and staff liability. But it differs greatly from state to state, as you say. I was told, for example, that Nevada won't act even if there is clearcut drug abuse because it is so endemic there that they would be removing incredible numbers of children and the system couldn't support them.

We filled up both of our cars on Thursday when prices dipped a little; it was $3.74 at the station we used. The next day it was back up to $3.80 and higher, so we were glad we hit it at the right time!

I filled up on Thursday & it was $3.90 Friday morning it dropped to $3.76..... was NOT happy. took me $73 to fill up Thursday.

4.12 here

$3.64 here today, woohooo!!! The gas station lines were pretty packed but it went fast.

3.94 here

I got gas for $3.63 a couple of days ago. Haven't seen the prices since.

Saw $3.53 for gas the other day. Diesel was $3.93. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

I want to see both for less than a dollar per gallon again.

Fuel prices probably mean a staycation instead of visiting my parents out-of-state this year.

down to 3.41 today at several stations in town. we're still 3.58 to 3.68 here in the country

It's $3.61 here today, wheeee! Still much higher than it needs to be, but, thankful for the drop.

woo hoo down to 3.36 today

$3.84 this morning. Seesaw pricing. I'm sure they have a good excuse though.

I swear I am so moving to Mo.... Gas is 3.59 yesterday when I put some in the truck...

3.91 here

$3.65 was the lowest I saw today.

3.65 here in Texas.

I avoided looking at the price sign today when I drove by the gas station LOL

$3.59 tonight...

day after the tornado.. i filled up for $3.51 a gallon.

down to 3.31 today. I hope it keeps coming down

$3.36 gas. $3.89 diesel this a.m.

3.31 would be AWESOME!

Not too long ago, everyone would have said $3.31 (in the U.S.) is ridiculous... the nefarious petroleum companies' efforts to condition us into thinking ridiculous prices sound like a good deal must be working since we're all "happy" with the "new" "lower" prices.

$0.16/gallon would be awesome, but I'd be happy if gas and diesel both went below a dollar a gallon. Everything is getting more and more expensive, and a big part of it is diesel prices. And the car companies not making fuel-efficient cars (50-75 mpg minimum), doesn't help.



This message was edited May 31, 2011 5:26 PM

I'd be happy with 98 cents a gallon.... it was for 3 months after i got my first car...

Diesel is awful. just plain awful. We had a fuel company call us & inform us a tornado going thru our business was NO EXCUSE not to pay them the day after the tornado hit... and they shut off our fuel cards... We are trying to get on our feet & they shut off our cards bc we are a day late ONCE due to a tornado leveling the building. :) if we didn't have to have that particular card.. mom would have told them to shove it where the sun didn't shine... I'm sure my brother did but not in such a pleasant way.

I remember in 1974 when they upped the price from 20 cents to 1 dollar. At that time that was TERRIBLE!

Gas is still less then .25 cents in some countries [oil countries] in the middle east--- "from what I read," ---

ugh... just paid 3.52 for it... it so has not went down here!

3.86 here

In Europe they are paying $9 a gallon, or something equivalent, or so I've heard.

Good to see you on Michael.

3.27 today I can't believe it is still coming down

$3.98 here today. What's up with that? Wonder why it's that much lower in other states than here?

Gas $3.51 diesel $3.75 today; it hasn't changed much this week.